Since the official birth of organized anarchism at the Saint Imier Congress of 1872, no anarchist organization has been held up to greater opprobrium or subjected to such gross misrepresentation than the Federación Anarquista Ibérica. Better known by its initials, the FAI, was a group of twentieth-century militants dedicated to keeping Spain’s largest labour union, the CNT, on a revolutionary, anarcho-syndicalist path.

There are two dimensions to Stuart Christie’s indispensable ‘We, The Anarchists!’ The ﬁrst is descriptive and historical: it outlines the evolution of the organised anarchist movement in Spain and its relationship with the wider labour movement, and, at the same time, it provides some insight into the main ideas that made the Spanish labour movement one of the most revolutionary of modern times.

The second is analytical, as the book addresses —from an anarchist perspective—the problem of understanding and coping with change in the contemporary world; how can ideals survive the process of institutionalisation?

Stuart Christie’s analysis covers the history of Spanish anarchism and the Spanish Civil War, the affinity group organisation of the FAI, and the misreadings and outright lies told about the FAI in numerous popular and academic accounts of the period. ‘We, The Anarchists!’ Also provides lessons relevant to today’s neutered labour movement.

A gripping tale and informative historical corrective, Christie’s book jumps out of history with lessons for contemporary organizations and individuals struggling for social and economic change.

‘At last. A serious examination of the legendary FAI. And hence, by necessity, a history and analysis of the organised anarchist movement in Spain, and its relationship with the wider labor movement. By far the best book on the subject, Christie is ruthless in his examination — from an anarchist perspective – of the theory, and practice of this loose-knit group of anarchist militants. Required reading for everyone who not only wants to understand the history of Spanish anarchism, but for those that might want to see some viable form of anarchist organisation in the 21st century.’

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Anarchism

Anarchism swept us away completely, because it demanded everything of us and promised everything to us. There was no remote corner of life that it did not illumine ... or so it seemed to us ... shot though with contradictions, fragmented into varieties and sub-varieties, anarchism demanded, before anything else, harmony between deeds and words
- Victor Serge, Memoirs of a Revolutionary